Veth Integrated L drive first sea trial
The first Integrated L-drive has been delivered to Damen Shipyards’ ‘Volt Processor’ fish farm service vessel and early sea trials have been hailed a success.
The Volt Processor is a fish farm service vessel of 43.27m which uses 750kW electric power to undertake delousing operations and other service at Norwegian salmon farms. The decision to choose a diesel-electric configuration was easy, as it provides an efficient, flexible power supply for the 750kW propulsion installation and for driving the deck equipment when moored within a farm. Electric propulsion has the advantage of redundancy and is also well suited to operating in Dynamic Positioning mode.
According to Veth, besides space, the hydrodynamic design and efficiency are important advantages of the Veth Integrated L-drive. The water cooled Permanent Magnet (PM) Motor is more efficient and produces less noise than an air cooled asynchronous motor. In particular, the part load efficiency is higher. At 25% load, the improvement in efficiency with a PM Motor is 5.2%.
The Veth Integrated L-drive generates less noise, because it does not have a gear transmission in the ship. The electrical steering further reduces noise production.
By Jake Frith
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